Finnish-Polish Environmental Cooperation Forums in Poland

Environmental Contact Forum in Gdansk, 14-15 May 2003

Finnish-Polish environmental contact forum in Gdansk was a part of project “Development of Environmental Co-operation Between the Tampere Region and Polish Coastal Regions”, which the Baltic Institute of Finland is co-ordinating. Contact forum was based on interviews and comprehensive survey of project opportunities carried out in Polish coastal regions - Pomeranian and Western Pomeranian provinces.

Several Finnish companies and other environmental specialists, like representatives from Regional Environment Centre, Technical University of Tampere and Tampere Polytechnic participated to the Gdansk forum in order to listen to the Polish proposals on co-operation opportunities mainly in the fields of water-, wastewater- and waste management. The mini fairs on the second day of the forum provided opportunity to discuss the projects further during organized bilateral meetings between the Polish and Finnish partners.

The Baltic Institute of Finland organised contact forum in co-operation with the province of Pomerania

Exchanging Experiences of ISPA Environmental Projects in Poland and Baltic States: Seminar in Torun, 16.-17. May 2003

The seminar in Toruņ provided actual outlook of the implementation of ISPA projects in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and gave knowledge of the particular problems in ISPA implementation. It enabled to exchange experiences between Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian local authorities dealing with ISPA projects. Seminar also provided information for the Finnish participants about consulting needs among ISPA projects and about the transition from ISPA to Cohesion Fund starting in 2004.

The first day of the seminar consisted of presentations of local ISPA authorities from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. Also representatives from EC Delegation in Poland and the Finnish and Polish Ministries of Environment presented their views on the ISPA fund and co-operation in the Baltic Sea Region. Seminar was lead by the Director of Department of Development and European Union Integration, City of Toruņ (Mr. Piotr Calbecki).

After the presentations several municipal and private companies from Toruņ arranged a separate discussion including bilateral meetings between Polish and Finnish partners. A site visit to the local water and sewage treatment plant and a quided sightseeing in the old town of Torun were organized on the second day of the seminar. The seminar was directed for the same Finnish target group, that participated to the contact forum in Gdansk. It was organized in co-operation with the Baltic Institute of Finland and City of Toruņ. The Ministry of Environment in Finland participated to the financing of the seminar.

Lithuanian-Finnish Seminar on Environmental Management Systems, Vilnius, 29 April 2003

BIF together with Institute of Environmental Engineering at the Kaunas University of Technology (Apini) and Finnish Environment Institute organizes a Lithuanian-Finnish Seminar on Environmental Management Systems in Vilnius on 29 April 2003. The seminar is targeted at relevant stakeholders in Lithuania: industrial organizations, chambers of commerce, environmental authorities and NGOs. The purpose of the seminar is to disseminate basic information about EMS and to discuss about the possibilities of ISO 14000 and EMAS in Lithuania.

Meeting of the CBSS Working Group on Economic Cooperation in Tampere on 23-24 January 2003

In connection with the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) a meeting of the CBSS Working Group on Economic Cooperation will be held in Tampere on 23-24 January 2003. BIF and the City of Tampere are the local organizers of the meeting. Approximately 25 high level representatives of ministries of economy from all the Baltic Sea countries will participate in the meeting. Northern Dimension and the NeDAP are among the priorities of the Finnish CBSS Presidency.